ARTIST NEWS

40 Ways to Celebrate

The birth of an airline and the launch of a music career involve dreams of taking off (and, yeah, some baggage). The 40 new artists featured here are not only ready to fly, they’re doing what artists do: giving us the music to carry on.

BROOKLYN RIDERHometown: Brooklyn, New YorkNotes: These four princes from the borough of Kings have a boundless curiosity for the world’s sonic cultures. On recently released discs, they do equal justice to traditional works by Philip Glass and Debussy, as well as works influenced by provenances like Iran and Armenia. Violinist Colin Jacobsen is also a polished composer in his own right.

Reminds us of: An East Coast version of the Kronos Quartet.

JEREMY DENK Hometown: Las Cruces, New MexicoNotes: Known for provocative programming (such as the combination of Ligeti’s thorny contemporary etudes with Bach’s impeccably baroque Goldberg Variations), pianist Denk is an artist who is unapologetically intelligent and endlessly mesmerizing. His independently released all-Ives disc, Jeremy Denk Plays Ives, is as bold as his recent album of Bach partitas.